Determination of steroidal estrogens in food matrices: current status and future perspectives

Development of accurate and versatile techniques to determine steroidal estrogens in food matrices have become a major concern due to their harmful health effects. Deleterious effects have been reported even at low ppt levels and the analytical methods developed should be able to determine such levels. This brief review is centered on the novel method developments for the determination of five steroidal estrogens, estriol, 17 alpha-estradiol, 17 beta-estradiol, estrone, and ethinyl estradiol in food matrices including dairy products, fish, meat, vegetables, and tea during the course of the past three years (2017-2019). Extraction methods including functionalized magnetic nanomaterials, and molecular imprinted polymers (MIP), have been used prior to chromatographic quantification methods. The QuEChERS extraction as well as other conventional polymeric solid phase extraction methods are still used for sample preparation in chromatographic determination. Significant attention has been given to methods which can directly determine target compounds and omit time consuming sample preparation and determination methods. Aptamer based sensors and carbon paste electrodes were extensively used as well. Furthermore, MIP sensor based and immunosensor based approaches have also been reported.